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Iris Film Collective (in collaboration with Cineworks) are pleased to present FRENKEL DEFECTS, a traveling screening series of contemporary experimental 16mm films presented by Kevin Rice (in person) from the Colorado-based Process Reversal. This series aims to explore what it means to work in—and exhibit on—photochemical film today by examining works from artists operating specifically in this practice. Often, this involves getting their hands dirty at every stage of the process: from optical effects to photo-processing, editing and contact printing, optical sound recording, and even the creation of the photosensitive emulsion itself. As a result (and as suggested by the series' title), creative aberrations make their way into the standard photochemical process, giving birth to a new, textural aesthetic that plays out on the surface of the filmstrip. More than ever before, film reminds us of its physicality, giving a new sense to Andrei Tarkovsky’s idea of “sculpting in time.”

We are pleased to present this program of rare and diverse works, nearly all of which originate outside North America, presented in their intended 16mm format. Almost all of these films were produced with the help of artist-run film labs—collectively-run organizations dedicated to facilitating artists’ working in photochemical film—including LaborBerlin (Berlin), L’Abominable (Paris) and Filmwerkplaats (Rotterdam).

There will be an artist talk with Kevin Rice on Saturday Nov 28 at 2pm, Falaise Fieldhouse, 3434 Falaise Ave (free admission), as well as a Workshop on Experimental Contact Printing on 16mm film on Nov 29 10am-6pm at the Cineworks Annex (235 Alexander St). Pre-registration and payment for the workshop is required and can be found HERE.

Programme:

- Konrad & Kurfurst (Esther Urlus, 7 mins, Optical Sound, Netherlands)A fictional re-enactment of a 5 minute occurrence during the Olympic games in Berlin 1936. Made on home brew emulsion and colour toned with the helping hand of technical publications from early cinema and photographic experiments. The home brew emulsion as fragile metaphor for the heroism of Konrad and his horse Kurfurst. Falling from his horse he became a national hero but overtaken by history, an anti-hero.

- WAKE (Eric Stewart, 8 mins, silent, USA) Wake is a dirge in celluloid. It is a celebration of my father's life, a meditation on his body and a visual record of mourning. When my father died, there was never a chance to see his body after life had left it. This film was made by placing his ashes directly on 35mm film in a dark room and moving the film a frame at a time. What we see in this process of photogramming is not the object in the photographic sense, but instead a representation of the space surrounding an object. The photogram is a shadow charting the distance between things.

- In the Traveler’s Heart (DISTRUKTUR, 20 mins, Optical Sound, Lithuania/Germany/Brazil)The winter reigns as the Traveler crosses by feet an ancient landscape. In this place there's also another presence, someone who's very similar to the Traveler. Does the Traveler realize this figure that cohabits the same space as him? Is the other a guardian angel or a devil?

- Aula Magna (Andrés Denegri, 10 mins, Optical Sound, Argentina)A structural farewell poem made for a beloved place. The images were shot frame by frame over the course of a year, in order to portray the author’s home main room through the variation ofthe light coming from a window. The sound, by Pablo Denegri, was made by mixing and processing, in real time, direct recordings made in the same space.

- Split Film 100110 (Dražen Zanchi, 30 mins, Wild Sound, Croatia/France)Boats are entering in the Split harbour. Each sequence is a maneuver: slow and continuous. Nevertheless, boats and their movements become more and more difficult to recognize because the image is drawn in fluctuations of its physical elements. Textures of bulky light layers and grainy grey noises are confounded with the soundtrack. The latter is articulated around the touch, i.e. local and non-propagating formations grafted on thick resonant and tonal substrate.

Andrés Denegri (Buenos Aires, 1975) is a visual artist who works mostly on film, video, photography and installations.His work has been featured at numerous exhibitions and festivals, where he has achieved significant recognitions: Grand Prix at the Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales (Buenos Aires, 2015), First Prize of Itaú Cultural 2013 (Buenos Aires, 2013),Golden Medal for the Best Experimental Film at Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival (Serbia, 2012), Grand Prix of MAMBA and Fundación Telefonica Prize for Arts and New Technologies (Buenos Aires, 2009), Best National Short Film at Mar del Plata International Film Festival (Mar del Plata, 2008),Juan Downey Prize atthe Bienal de Video yNuevos Medios de Santiago (Chile, 2007), Golden Impakt Award (Utrecht, 2005), 25 FPS Prize (Zagreb, 2005) among others. He is co-director of the Bienal de la Imagen en Movimiento and curator of the film and video program at the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires. He is professor at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero and Universidad del Cine. Denegri currently lives and works in Buenos Aires.

Melissa Dullius and Gustavo Jahn are Brazilian artists and filmmakers. Since 2007 they form the duo DISTRUKTUR. Films, photographs, installations and performances form Distruktur's body of work. Films by Distruktur have been presented in festivals such as Berlinale, Torino, Moscow IFF and Curta Cinema in Rio de Janeiro, as well as in New Museum in New York, Paço das Artes in São Paulo, and Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre. Current projects include the film-performance NAVIGATION,the work-in-progress FILME DE PEDRA and their first feature film, in post-production phase. The duo lives and works in Berlin.

Dražen Zanchi, born in 1968 in Split, Croatia, PhD in theoretical physics, is associate professor at Paris Diderot University , film-maker and performer. His most representative scientific works focus on the organoleptic perceptions of the astringency and ageing of red wines, in relation with the sensation of granularity and dustiness upon tasting (e.g. J. Phys. Cond. Mat. 2008). Also to cite is his 16mm 30’ film Mercedes Dunavska or the Impossible Trajectory A1 (2008), articulated around dark, weakly exposed and then blown up coarse-grained visual and, in certain points, sound materials. So here’s the Grain Man. lightcone.org/en/filmmaker-1115-drazen-zanchi & dailymotion.com/draegue-zanunch

Eric Stewart (b. 1985; Chicago, Illinois) is an interdisciplinary multimedia artist and educator. Working predominantly with 16mm film his artistic practice invokes photochemical and darkroom processes to investigate landscape, place and cultural identity in the American West. Before moving to Colorado in 2013, Eric lived in the San Francisco Bay Area where he taught a biweekly analogue filmmaking workshop called “The Elements of Image Making”. His 16mm films and installations have exhibited at: The Yerba Buena Center for Fine Arts (SF), Yale University, Crossroads Film Festival (SF Cinematheque), The Portland Experimental Film Festival and The Florida Experimental Film Festival. His current project examines history of the terrarium, through time lapse photography and DIY horticulture.

Esther Urlus is a Rotterdam-based artist working with motion picture film formats Super8, 16mm and 35mm. Resulting in films, performances and installations, her works always arise from DIY methods. Kneading the material, by trial, error and (re)inventing, she creates new work. Urlus is the founder of WORM Filmwerkplaats, an artist-run workspace dedicated to motion picture film as an artistic, expressive medium. Her work has been exhibited and screened at film festivals worldwide including 25FPS festival Zagreb, Ann Arbor Film Fest,Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Sonic Acts, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam.